Strength in numbers: Reflections from the Community Wealth Building Summit

Team Carnegie UK was out in force for the CLES Community Wealth Building (CWB) Summit in Manchester yesterday. It was great to catch up with so many fellow travellers in the broader wellbeing movement, and to take a deep dive into CWB, one of the approaches which is bringing wellbeing thinking to life in places across the UK. 

Three main takeaways for me from the conversations and presentations yesterday: 

Context is everything. There is a variety of language, models, and tools available with which people can measure wellbeing; set wellbeing goals; ensure accountability for wellbeing; and promote CWB. The important thing is to choose the one that works for your context, get started, and learn as you go. Usual plea: don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. If you want a longer version of this thought, including some of the available wellbeing models, I recommend this report we published with Centre for Thriving Places a while back.

We have to both think and act. Potentially contradictory thoughts that are actually not contradictory at all; Phil Tulba urged everyone to get the thinking “out of the lecture theatre and onto the ground” and Neil McInroy encouraged us to be appreciative of the opportunity to stop doing for a day and “think together”. The privilege of days like yesterday is the space they offer to be challenged; to reflect; to hear what other people are up to; to articulate your own thinking. But none of that adds up to anything at all unless it translates into new or better practice that engages with people and helps to improve their lives.  

People are stronger together. Community Wealth Building is itself a “doing phrase” and critically it’s a “doing together” phrase. Grace Blakeley powerfully reminded us that the Italian fascist movement originated in the context of people experiencing isolation and powerlessness. Recent decades have seen a significant rise in individualism in the UK, while no end of data, including our own Life in the UK Index, attests to the fact that many people do not feel they have any say in the decisions that affect their lives.. Against this background, CWB and other wellbeing approaches can re-build the collective muscle and challenge an individualist ideology. This took me back to the start of the day when Sarah Longlands had encouraged delegates to remind ourselves of the scale of the prize to be won and the importance of what can be achieved if we too work together. Strength in numbers.  

Many thanks to CLES for putting on such a good event, and to Helen Power in particular for her stellar organisational skills. It was a pleasure to interview Derek Walker and to chair the panel of Professor Carolyn W., Gavin White, Matthew Brown and Phil Tulba. Thanks to everyone who submitted questions on Slido; I’m only sorry I couldn’t get to them all!